Nate Evans' name may not be as recognizable as Curtis Mayfield's or Eddie Kendricks', but as a singer he ranks right along those legendary soul vocalists as a member of not one but two of the most acclaimed groups in pop history.

"I remember one night we were on the stage, all the Impressions, and I'm leading the song," says Evans, 65, who joined the legendary group in 1976 and in the late '80s teamed with three former lead singers of Motown's the Temptations in a super group.

"Something said, ‘Nate, look at your background singers. I look back I've got Curtis Mayfield on guitar. I've got "the Iceman" Jerry Butler as the background singer. And I'm thinking, you have arrived. The same thing happened when I got with (the former Temptations). I was leading the song. We were in Vegas, and I'm looking back at my background singers. My background singers were Eddie Kendricks, David Ruffin, and Dennis Edwards. They may have been crazy, but at that moment it meant a lot."

On Saturday, Evans brings his Temptations Revue, a tribute to his former bandmates and the Motown sound they helped shape, to the Bartlett Performing Arts & Conference Center.

"It takes you back on a ride back to the days of the '60s and '70s," Evans says of the show. "We take you back to the original dances, the costumes, the harmonies. Some people get on stage and try to finish real fast and sing the songs different. We do it just like the record, and we dance the whole time. We take you back to the time when they didn't cuss in the songs and talk about other people's clothes and things like that. When it was all about love and understanding."

Looking back, Evans seemed predestined for a music career. He grew up in Gary, Ind. just down the street from the Jackson family, including Michael, who was 10 years younger, and Jackie who was closer to his age.

Evans started singing when he was about 15 years old, playing in a succession of local groups. When he was 19, he encountered a particularly avaricious club promoter who inspired him to get into the business side of show business.

"I watched the club owners make all the money and just decided I needed to do that," says Evans, who in the '60s and '70s promoted Gary shows by the likes of Jackie Wilson, Bobby Womack, Tyrone Davis, Wilson Pickett, and Al Green.

Showing a knack for savvy business moves, Evans made even more money on these concerts by booking himself as the opening act.

It was while organizing a benefit concert for his friend Wilson that Evans got his chance to join the Impressions, who almost bowed out of the show because they were in need of a new lead singer.

Thirteen years later, another Evans friend, Kendricks, called looking for a singer to help complete a group that would rival the Temptations, then, as now, being led by original member Otis Williams.

"I said, ‘Well, what about Otis' group?' I can't tell you what they said. They just said forget them," recalls Evans. "But we were definitely the stronger group because we had the three lead singers."

Evans stayed with the group through the deaths of Ruffin in 1991 and Kendricks in 1992 and continued along for a while with Edwards, who today has his own Temptations Review.

Evans meanwhile, has gotten back to his business roots. In recent years he bought a theater in Sevierville, Tenn., near the tourist destination of Pigeon Forge, where he brought in touring acts as well as showcased his own group. The theater is closed now, but Evans still calls East Tennessee home, though his schedule means he spends as much as nine months out of the year on the road.

"I have to catch a plane to go to work no matter where I live, so it doesn't really matter," says Evans. "Down here it's just real easy. Just nice and clear down here. Definitely different from Gary, Ind."